T46 
SOMALILAND 
and tiny children would follow me the whole day, leaving 
countless flocks and herds, which they were much too 
miserly to slaughter, to the tender care of the much- 
despised and overworked women at home. 
For about a week I enjoyed excellent sport upon this 
huge open plain, over which hung a haze looking like a 
large lake in the distance. Each day I sent out men on 
horseback in every direction to look for lions, but not a 
single one did they find whilst 1 was encamped at Jiggiga. 
Whilst trying to kill a wounded hartebeest, I nearly blew 
my hand off with my revolver, the bullet grazing the skin ! 
Every night hyaenas and jackals came, in dozens to feed on 
the rotten carcases of my pony and camel, but not a single 
lion put in an appearance. 
One day I saw a curious sight upon the plain. I had 
knocked over a hartebeest, which lay apparently dead upon 
its side, but on my shikari running up to it, in spite of my 
shouts of warning, it got upon its legs, and made off at an 
astonishing pace, and as my shikari was, of course, in the 
way, I could not again fire. We followed him until he lay 
down a long way ofi* us. Suddenly, long before we got 
anywhere near him, he jumped up and began turning round 
and round, and for a long time I could not make out what 
on earth he was playing at. At length I perceived that a 
tiny little jackal was attacking him. The plucky little 
animal was trying to down the great antelope. Every time 
the hartebeest tried to run away, the jackal would jump up 
high on to his haunches, and compel him to turn round and 
use his horns to keep the smaller animal off. Round and 
round the two' kept turning for several minutes, the ante- 
lope always trying to keep his head to the jackal, the jackal 
trying to leap upon the antelope’s back. At length I got 
within range of them, and was crouching in the grass to see 
what would eventually happen, when the jackal caught a 
glimpse of me, and made off, so I planted another bullet 
into the now tired-out hartebeest, and grassed him. He 
was a very fine, fat beast, with horns 22 inches between 
